Xi’an Famous Foods’s Expansion Plans: New Locations and a Spot in the Frozen Foods Section

December 30, 2010

Get ready for spicy and tingly lamb face to go mainstream. Xi’an Famous Foods, the Flushing hand-pulled noodle joint that expanded to Manhattan this past year with two new locations, has even bigger plans. According to The Wall Street Journal, Jason Wang and his father, David Shi, have taken over a 5,000-square-foot space in East Williamsburg that will act as a food factory, servicing up to a dozen restaurants and producing frozen foods the father-and-son team hope to sell to grocery stores. The building will house a model kitchen, a training center, and a locked chamber where the family’s secret recipes are to be made.

Xi’an recently Tweeted a request for patrons to fill out a survey to help decide where the next location might be. Wang and Shi are apparently scouting spots in Midtown and Brooklyn. The pair are also considering franchising the business. So, the question remains: When you take the food out of Flushing, do you take the Flushing out of the food? So far, the answer is no. The locations on East Broadway and St. Marks offer fare just as fiery and delicious as in Queens. But we’ll be holding our breath to see how this forthcoming expansion goes. It could work: Making Xi’an at home has always been a great idea.